Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 John 1:12

Explanation of the brevity of the letter. ὑμῖν, i.e., Kyria, her children, and the church in her house. γράφειν connected ἀπὸ κοινοῦ with ἔχων and ἐβουλήθην. χάρτης, a sheet of papyrus, like those exhumed at Oxyrhynchus (see Deissmann, New Light on the New Test., pp. 12 ff.), the common material for letter-writing. μέλαν, atramentum; in N. T. only here, 3 John 1:13; 2 Corinthians 3:3. γενέσθαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς (cf. John 10:35; Acts 10:13; 1 Corinthians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 16:10): he was planning a visitation (see Introd. p. 155). στόμα πρὸς στόμα, “mouth answering mouth”; cf. LXX. Numbers 12:8; Jeremiah 32:4 (Jeremiah 39:4).

Why would he not write all that was in his mind? It was a deliberate decision ere he took pen in hand: this is the force of οὐκ ἐβουλήθην. His heart was full, and writing was a poor medium of communication (Beng.: “Ipsa scribendi opera non juvat semper cor affectu sacro plenum”); he was an old man, and writing was fatiguing to him (Plummer). The reason is deeper. The “many things” which he had in his mind, were hard things like his warning against intercourse with heretics, and he would not write them at a distance but would wait till he was on the spot and had personal knowledge. It is easy to lay down general principles, but their application to particular cases is a delicate task, demanding knowledge, sympathy, charity. (1) The sight of people's faces appeals to one's heart and softens one's speech. (2) When one meets with people and talks with them, one's judgment of them and their opinions is often modified. Writing from Ephesus, St. John might have condemned a teacher in a neighbouring town whose teaching he knew only by report; but perhaps, if he met the man and heard what he had to say, he might discover that there was nothing amiss, at all events nothing which called for excommunication. Dr. Dale of Birmingham was at first inclined to look with disfavour on Mr. Moody. He went to hear him, and his opinion was altered. He regarded him ever after with profound respect, and considered that he had a right to preach the Gospel, “because he could never speak of a lost soul without tears in his eyes”. St. John shrank from hasty condemnation that there might be no after-regret ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ ἡμῶν πεπληρωμένη ᾖ.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 John 1:12

Old Testament

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